Just a quick email to let you know that I thoroughly enjoyed your actor profile of John Wayne. It was very well written with a nice flow! Thanks for sharing your time & talent with those of us looking for just that sort of thing on the net.
Best regards always!
Kerrie
Houston, TX

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RE: Hollywood Animal by Joe Ezsterhaus: Excellent review. Could not have said it better about the "bucket of swill". I live in l.a. and have worked around some of these people. You really said it all very well.
thanks...
jbell

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Did Frank Sinatra compose any other songs besides "Mistletoe and Holly"?
Thanks,
Josh Mankiewicz
Dateline NBC

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I would suggest that since you obviously hate Bob Dylan, that you are not the man for the job as far as a cd review is concerned. Your smug know it all attitude is particularly annoying. Why not put on some artist you enjoy and get off your high horse. The man has been knocked by many such as yourself over the years yet he has endured and brought much meaning to many lives. I am sick of the almost venomous motivations behind reviews such as yours. You must have had a good laugh that day trying to see how clever you could come across. Do it at someone else's expense please.
Jim

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Yeah, I just have to say your review on "The Fearless Vampire Killers" pisses me off. If you have "taste" then it is appallingly bad! This movie has great characterization. Jack McGowran as Professor Abronsius was hilarious!! No, you're not gonna find any one-liners from this masterpiece, the humor lies in the situations and subtle parody of the characters. Ferdy Mayne was an excellent Count (one of the best I might add) and for you to just dismiss this great film the way you did is shameful. What are YOU doing being a critic anyway since you're "good taste" is a little lacking for appreciation of something as extraordinary as this film. I'll give you funny: A frozen Professor Abronsius upon his arrival to the villa. The statement on his face. All of Shagal's antics. The Professor's fascination with nature coming first before his own safety. It's quirky and definitley one in it's own. The parts meant to be jokes didn't make me laugh t! oo much either, the comedy is in the subtle characterizations. Ok, im too angry to go on. I know, it's hard to remember what a great film is with all the crap on the big screen these days infesting our psyche.
Steven

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Hi! I am going to cite your review of Natural Born Killers in an essay that I am writing for college and I was wondering what the date that you wrote this article was?? Thanks a lot! Have a great Thanksgiving!

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Brian,
I really hope you get this message. I am an eleventh grade English teacher in Spanaway, Washington (it is a God-forsaken little town) and recently one of my brighter students turned in a "book report" on Bugsy. The assignment is watch the movie, read the book, write a compare and contrast essay. As, I said, this student is brighter than most but even at that I know his report was not original - I don't even use the word "financiers." So, my dilemma, where do I begin in my quest to bust this kid for cheating? First, yahoo for a random Benjamin Siegel search which talks about movies. I rapidly abandoned that plan as I knew it would take too long. Then I thought Internet Movie Data Base. My thought here is, "That is too easy." I go to this site all the time. My life can't be this easy. But surprise! There it is, big as life, Eric's report - only under the name Brian Fairbanks. He is so caught. Anyway, I hope you get a kick out of it. Also, I corrected "Eric's" paper. The only mistake I found was that the title should be underlined or in italics, other than that, a solid 'A' paper.
shannon

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Many thanks for the excellent, thoughtful analysis of my book -- although it's a bit creepy to be in the company of better writers. Sort of like being the least attractive person at a party.
Scott Peck
Washington, DC

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Hi Brian,
This is a request to help a stranger for no reason at all! I have just finished reading your book on the web, Surviving Y2K, which was one of the much more entertaining and readable texts on the topic of those I have recently read. I have read a few related web texts because I am trying to resolve a dispute between me and a stubborn guy at work who doesn't believe that, during the 1929 crash and other crashes, brokers jumped from windows out of sheer distress. It's a silly question but I am unfortunately bound to buy him coffee if I can't prove that it did happen, and I very much don't want to do that! For this reason, I wondered if I could bother you about Footnote No.6 in Chapter 3 of Surviving Y2K, where you have a reference to such events. I checked for the footnote and found this:
"P.S. If, for some bizarre reason, you need the endnotes for research purposes, send me an email stating your intentions and I may very well agree to send you the full text with endnotes intact as an attachment in Microsoft Word."
Well this is a bizarre reason (there's always one, isn't there!) and if you have a moment to help, I would be very grateful. I'm sure you don't - but on the off chance that you could help me with this reference, I would really appreciate it. I am a junior solicitor from Melbourne, Australia, by the way, and have been looking on the net to answer this question outside of work hours.
Kind regards,
Natalie

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I have just read you account of the life of Anthony Perkins. You have done a wonderful job. I thought he was a good actor, and there were things I didn't know until I read your page. Thanks you for your effort.
Joe

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Dear Mr. Fairbanks:
Your reviews on amazon.com are ingenious. The review of Hollywood Animal is insightful and hilarious. You really hit the center mass on that one. Your review is itself, as entertaining as any book written on Hollywood. I also got a kick out of your reviews of A Charlie Brown Christmas and Barry Lyndon.
You have a real talent for extracting the essence of a given subject and articulating it in a meaningful way. I think you also have a sophisticated yet effortlessly readable style. I would very much like a publication list as I think you are about to become my favorite writer.
ML

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